Work Text:
He’s not sure if this is a good thing or not, how everyone suddenly had their attention on him. He realized ages ago that his friends weren’t trying to hurt him these last few stress-filled months but there was still something about all the almost…forced affection that just.
Well.
It made him unbelievably fucking miserable.
Allura and Coran had found a planet with tropical climates and gorgeous beaches to stay for the weekend, just a little bit of a reprieve in honor of…Lance.
And it just. It wasn’t… it didn’t feel right.
Pidge had somehow, with that beautiful brain of hers, expanded the Killbot Phantasm game by about three levels. Lance had no idea when she’d even had the opportunity to do so between all her super important world saving tech.
She said she did it for him, that it was part of his birthday extravaganza. Lance was excited. Honestly, honestly, he was so gosh darned excited. But a part of him couldn’t help but wonder if she didn’t do it for herself too.
Hunk had baked a collection of celebratory confectioneries the second the lions had touched down, commandeering this pretty little resort’s whole damn kitchen and a small portion of the staff in the name of “the legendary defender” because man when were they going to get another excuse to chill, relax, enjoy themselves.
And yeah, that in and of itself told Lance all he needed to know.
Sure, Hunk made his favorite. Sure, he color coded them and wrote Happy Birthday Lance in every possible place he could. But it just seemed to him that maybe… maybe this wasn’t really for Lance.
And he really didn’t want to think about Allura.
He didn’t.
So. He smiled. He laughed. He said “aww thanks” about a billion times. And then he excused himself.
That was day one.
It was about two minutes into day two, his official birthday, when there was a knock on his door. He wondered who it was, maybe the whole lot of them come to shout happy birthday and pretend they cared.
They did care. They did freaking care okay Lance. You know that. Sure, it doesn’t feel that way all the time but you know you matter.
Lance sighs and pulls himself out of bed. He wasn’t sleeping, he wasn’t comfortable. He was in his robe and he had been laying there hoping for sleep for a few hours now but that was fine. He plastered on his happy face and wandered over to the door to his temporary room.
It wasn’t much better than sitting in Red for days on end but the bed was huge and plush and there were windows and lights and colors outside that weren’t just… more never ending space.
Also, there was a nice big bathroom table and Lance could see all his junk for the first time since he lost his last room. He was running low on his facemask and wouldn’t have noticed if he’d not had the chance to spread them out. He also wasn’t exactly sleeping at “night” anymore, so his evening routine was always a little harder to actually keep to schedule.
But none of that mattered, because someone was knocking.
Lance checked his face in the mirror next to the door, adjusted his hair just a bit, he didn’t know, maybe it was a birthday miracle and Allura was coming by to say she loved him—
Haha.
Hah.
Quiznak.
He opened the door, prepared to feign all his good humor when he caught sight of those abnormal and as always insanely beautiful purple eyes.
Lance forgot himself for a solid second. Not prepared for it to be him and him alone outside his door. Maybe expecting Keith to be standing beside the rest of the group, a little off to the side, toward the back with his arms crossed.
That made far more sense than just…
Than just Keith. Alone. Standing there with a blanket and a pillow under one arm and an almost defiant blush on his face.
“Hey man,” He said flatly.
“…Hey. What are you… uh… what have you got there, buddy?” Lance eyed the blanket held on a grip so tight his knuckles looked pearly.
Despite the clear tension in his face and his hands Keith’s voice remained perfectly contained, “I uh…well, it’s a pillow and a blanket Lance. Isn’t that much obvious?” He glanced at the ground and Lance felt a small flutter in his chest.
“Well yeah dude, but why did you bring them… to my room.”
Keith took a deep breath before pushing a foot forward, “Just. Are you going to let me in or not?”
Lance, being a few levels removed from having any idea how to handle this situation, blinked a few times and stepped out of the way of the door. He watched Keith shuffle past him and drop himself straight onto his bed.
The fluttering sped up and multiplied in pressure and honestly Lance could feel his face starting to warm up and it scared him a little.
Because Keith was laying there looking utterly adorable.
“Okay. Okay. Fearless leader? You gotta explain this to me just a little bit okay…?”
Keith tapped the side of the bed and hid the bottom of his face behind the pillow he’d brought.
“Alright so. I don’t have any secret talent.” Keith offered finally as Lance slowly and carefully made his way over to the bed. Keith squeezed the pillow and let his eyelids drop a bit, “so I wasn’t really sure what I could do to show you…”
Lance sat down and scooched up so he could sit back against the headrest, close enough to Keith now that he could reach out and run his fingers through his hair if he wanted. Not that he was going to. Not that he actually really, really, wanted to. He just definitely could.
Instead Lance offered Keith a skeptical expression.
Keith made a small noise, something like a groan and whine before sitting up, plush pillow still squeezed to his chest, “Look, Lance, I’m gonna be real honest with you. I’m exhausted. I haven’t slept in a week trying to figure out what I could get you and I just—I wanted—I—ah… you seemed a little put out today and I thought maybe you could use a hug and—I’m probably wrong and way off base but. Maybe…”
Keith sighed and shifted so he was almost sitting against the headboard now too. Then he tilted slightly to the side and fell into Lance’s shoulder, “I guess I finally just figured… maybe I could just keep you company. You can make fun of me all you want, or you know… fuck with my hair—I mean you can’t cut it. Unless you really want to I guess. Like, so much it would make your year kind of want. But I’m gonna hope not and I’m just—I’m tired dude…”
Lance stared at him from the corner of his eyes, somehow unsure how the hell he was supposed to look at him directly while he was talking like that.
“Are you trying to tell me you’re my birthday gift?”
Keith squeezed himself smaller than Lance thought was physically possible, especially given how he’d grown, (seriously what the heck was going on.) “I know it’s stupid. And maybe even a little narcissistic but I mean if you don’t want my company than you can just give me some orders or something—”
Lance choked, dropped his palm onto the bed and turned, nearly dropping Keith in the process, “An Order?!”
“I mean like! If you have a chore you want me to do! Or—Or if you still can’t stand me and want me to disappear for the next 24 hours, oh holy shit, do you—can you still not stand me??” Keith righted himself quickly, sitting up again and dropping his pillow as his hands hit the mattress too, “Oh man how did I ever think this would be a good idea. I’ll disappear, I’m sorry I honestly have no friggen clue—”
Keith started to shuffle back off the bed when Lance panicked and grabbed his wrist, “No! No hold on this is just—I’m… I can totally stand you okay. Heck, I kinda missed your stupid mullet…” Lance isn’t sure how or why he did it, but he raised his free hand to brush a few strands of black hair off of Keith’s shoulder. “Actually it’s kind of grown a little too long to be a mullet now… I don’t like it. I think I do want to cut it.”
Keith’s cheeks went pink at the gesture and Lance almost punched himself in the chest to try and stop the blasted fluttering. There was absolutely no reason for it and he was just getting distracted. Keith was babbling. Keith was babbling because he was exhausted because he’d been staying up nights to try and figure out a gift for him? He definitely needed to focus on this conversation.
“Can you even cut hair because I’m not sure I trust you with scissors and my head if I’m being completely honest.” Keith mumbled, his eyes downcast.
Lance ignored that, he had a more pressing concern after all, “Keith, did you really uhm… look you didn’t have to make this big of a deal about it. You certainly didn’t need to lose sleep over my birthday…”
Keith shook his head and shuffled closer so he could be comfortable on the bed again, “No, I did. I kinda had to. I mean. I’ve seen how things have been lately and I’ve seen—you haven’t been happy and it’s your birthday and normal people actually… care about this junk. Right? It should be a day full of stuff that makes you happy… and I really wanted…”
To make you happy.
Wishful thinking, Lance figured.
But, the way Keith eyed the sheets and rubbed his thumb across his forefinger, the way his cheeks kept that rosy tinge and his shoulders hunched…
Maybe it was genuine.
Maybe. But he couldn’t really be sure, could he?
“Keith why would it matter?”
Lance wasn’t even sure why he asked. As if the answer would prove it for him. He should have let it go, told Keith he was totally a hairdresser for his siblings (which he’d been) and that he could totally cut Keith’s hair back into his usual garbage mullet, so he could go back to making fun of his hair on the regular, call it a night, happy birthday Lancey Lance.
But he didn’t. Instead he sounded miserable and hopeful all at once and when Keith looked him in the face Lance felt like he could have been swallowed up by those eyes.
“Because you matter?” Keith stated flatly. He tilted his head and leaned forward, “Because I’ve been gone for ages and… and I—ah… I wanted to… I wanted to do something for you. So just. Let me do something for you.”
Lance stared at him for a long minute.
Then he sighed and released Keith’s wrist, “You should sleep man. I don’t think I’ve ever heard you talk this much without a bayard in your hand.”
Keith frowned but nodded and started to slip back again, “You’re right, I guess I should go.” He made it to his feet before Lance could tug him down by the wrist again. Well, he’d aimed for his wrist but got his hand, fingers griping the back of his palm tightly as he pulled.
“Oh no you don’t. You’re my birthday present right?” The words were slipping out of his grinning lips before he could stop to think.
Keith squawked indignantly on his way down but otherwise didn’t put up a fight.
“I’m definitely gonna question how you figured showing up in my room at midnight with the intents to spend the night was how to go about delivering said gift. But I think it would be kind of unfair to do it now considering your filter seems broken. So, come morning you’re in for it just a little bit,” Lance chuckled and made himself comfortable in his bed again.
He didn’t have too many qualms about sharing a bed with Keith. They’d camped out on a bunch of different planets enough times for Lance to have realized Keith sleeps like the dead and besides that Lance could really use a cuddle buddy.
Though would that have been pushing it?
Did Keith come with the intention of just curling up on the end of the bed like a loyal dog, come only to keep Lance company, not implicitly any kind of physical contact?
Keith laid down on his side, grabbing his pillow and squeezing it to his chest again as he stared Lance in the face, “You can ask. I just don’t know if I’ll give you a super straight answer.”
Lance eyed Keith’s hands squeezing into the plush of the pillow and considered for a moment.
“You thought I needed a hug earlier?” Lance thought out loud.
Keith buried the bottom half of his face into the pillow again, those eyes bright as ever absolutely wrecking Lance’s chest again, “Yeah.”
“Did you need one too?”
“No.”
Lance bunched a pillow under his arm and propped his head up on his hand, “hm…did you want one?”
“Kind of.”
As soon as Lance realized Keith wasn’t saying “No” he reached his other hand out and tugged him forward so their torsos were pressed together. Keith yelped and ended up with his eyes hidden by Lance’s chest. Which was good for Lance because now he could think properly again.
“Selfish Keith.”
“It wasn’t my thought process though! I kind of always want… from you… ugh.”
Lance felt his eye brows shoot up because they took his ears with them and a small part of him always found that amusing, “Keith…?”
“Maybe you shouldn’t ask.” Keith said immediately, muffled by pillow.
“Do you…like me?” Lance wasn’t sure what he would do with the answer to this one.
“Maybe you shouldn’t ask…” Keith said again. Lance felt his arms tense, watched the pillow get squeezed to dimensions it probably wouldn’t come back from.
“Hey.” Lance started quietly, after a moment. Keith said nothing.
“Keith, this might sound kind of dumb but… I’d really like it if you answered me.”
Keith remained silent.
“It would make me really happy Keith.”
Keith groaned.
He wasn’t sure why it would make him happy, he just knew that it would. If Keith answered the way Lance thought he would, anyway.
“Look, I know it’s your birthday but if you want an answer just so you can humiliate me I’ll—”
Lance dropped his arm and leaned his head down into the top of Keith’s, tightening the grip he had around his waist.
“Thought you said part of my gift was that I could make fun of you?” Lance chuckled again, though he made sure his voice was soft, not at all serious. He’d been rejected enough times, why would he ever laugh at him?
Besides. He… wasn’t sure he wanted to reject Keith.
He’d had mixed feelings about the guy from the moment they met. He was angry and reckless and a show off. He was talented where Lance fought tooth and nail to get by. He was rude and calloused but still got everyone’s attention.
But then he was also… brave. Strong. Fiercely protective. Sometimes soft. Awkwardly cute. Funny. He was desperate to prove himself in ways Lance wasn’t. He sought family and acceptance and could be so warm and giving in his pursuit of that.
And god in heaven he was gorgeous. Unfair levels of gorgeous. Hell, the very idea Lance was currently holding him like this was blowing his mind.
“Lance…” Keith mumbled, so quiet Lance almost missed it.
“Come on Keith, tell me.”
Keith shook his head, “You’re important to me okay…? Important enough that I wanted… that I wanted to make sure you were okay, and I wanted to stay beside you today, and I wanted—I just wanted you to know.”
It was quiet for another few moments, the lights in the room had started to dim from the lack of motion before Keith spoke again.
His voice was so low he sounded like he was already half asleep when he said it, “Happy birthday, Lance.”
And Lance figured it was fine to let him rest. This wasn’t a bad way to start his birthday and he’d have the rest of the day tomorrow, relishing in his teammates presence, to get it out of him. Besides, the guy was clearly running on fumes if the way his body had already gone limp was any indication.
“Thank you, Keith. Sweet dreams.”